Another whirl-wind has passed through north Florida and south GA: it was not particularly news-worthy so you did not hear about it in the weather report. There was not a warning of funnel clouds come across the bottom of your television at six o'clock. No 'take cover!' alerts needed: it was only me in my little 47 m.p.g. Toyota traveling down highway 27 for a visit.
I went to see one of my favorite 'bad influences' in Chattahoochee. But sadly, amusedly discovered that there is no need for me to be influenced when it comes to buying plants that I impulsively purchase without any inkling of where it might get planted. And there are many opportunities as you travel the by-ways along Georgia's west coast. So I made several detours to peruse garden shops, nurseries, hometown hardware stores with a truckload of spring bloomers, hanging baskets, flats of vegetable starts for backyard/bucket plantings. Since I was happily drinking caffeine and had to stop four times on the three hour trip south, it was amazing how conveniently I was able to suss out the places all over southwest Georgia where the plant-lovers were in evidence.
Most folks (and everyone else who ends up with impulse buys) would Never think of going to the grocery store to buy a plant. But (from personal experience) there are lots of people who impulsively do just that. (Occasionally that someone is me - but I seem to put on a higher resistance level when dress in my green work shirt and black apron.) But the prettiest thing I saw on my trip, sitting on the sidewalk in front of a grocery, was a little hanging basket of lavender and white blooms (Bacopa). It looked like something that the hummingbirds and butterflies would find attractive that I thought it a good choice for people who love to plant and have created a mini-sanctuary in their yard, inviting wee pollinators and feathered friends to visit.
Now about those plant nurseries I was lured into: I have not planted that stuff yet... but have been out there with my gloves, shovel, rooting around, re-arranging on a daily basis. Soaking my shoes, socks and therefore feet with the hose as I diligently try to keep it all watered and successfully transplanted. Creating mud in places that have become bone dry due to lack of rains. There are places around the edges where I have put so much mulch over the years when I put my shovel in the ground there is good dirt instead of stone-hard dull orange/red clay and the earth is surprisingly damp enough to sustain life. So as I have experimented, practiced my therapeutic digging skills, watched some thrive and some vanish as they have been planted in prime or less-thad-desirable locations, it has been a process. Learning to think about what the plant naturally prefers: the circumstances that will make it happy, the environment where it will grow, be productive, where it was created/designed to live. Just like us: they all need water.
The people in FL are good: nursing aging poodles. (I have a pretty good idea that Petey and Wendy rule the roost.) We went to two more nurseries after lunch, one of which was on the west side of the Appalaichicola River, so if I had been farther north I would have been in Alabama, making me think I could change my title to 'three state marathon'. I had been lobbying for a tour of Donaldsonville for a couple of years, so we drove up to GA, and back through the extreme southwest corner after we ate in Mariana. Subtly lead astray/lured into a little local nursery, that is obviously struggling to stay afloat, I bought japanese holly ferns. With great plans for the perfect location..... but have already re-located in my mind's eye: from the shady back of the house to the blistering sun west/front.
Won't get that done this week: going downtown today as a volunteer at a local Girl Scout event. It will be chaotic, and hopefully somewhat beneficial to little girls dressed in brown and green. Needless to say we will be singing tiresome campfire songs, and doing cheesy camp crafts: my assignment is wrapping colorful yarn around popsicle/craft sticks to create: Ta-da! God's eye!
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